Arcee finally gets a futuristic car for an alt mode, just like her G1 version! Like many of the Animated "Cybertronian" modes, this sportscar has some definite aspects that seperate it from more traditional cars-- like the large rear wing-spoilers-- but it's not just a lazy alt mode with a robot mode done up in a yoga position. The only real robot mode extras are the hands sticking out the back end-- otherwise, this mode is quite solid. As is traditional with Animated toys, there's not much mold detailing due to the sleek alternate mode, but the paint detailing on the front helps to keep Arcee from looking too plain and boring. The  white-silver-reddish-pink design on the car's hood is stellar, and helps to break up the reddish pink that makes up the bulk of this mode. The white plastic itself looks nice, but it needed a bit more contrast than that. (And indeed, the back end could use a bit more paint detailing to break it up some.) I'm very glad they went with a more reddish pink as opposed to a normal light pink for the main color, though-- that would've been a bit TOO girly for a boys' toy line, methinks. Her wheels are partially hidden under the curves of the car mode, which gives her aesthetic a bit more of a unique look-- like she's almost a hover vehicle, but not quite. The cockpit is a nice transparent blue with a seat molded on the inside, and the ends of her transparent blue swords sticking out the back end look like trails of energy-exhaust-- again, a nice touch. Too bad the headlights are merely little bits of yellow paint, though-- a bit of transparent plastic really would've suited her there. The middle part of the car mode is also a tad questionable, with the parts not quite lining up with the surrounding pieces very well, particularly on the sides-- she looks better from a top-down view compared to a side-view.
    Arcee's robot mode is also fairly impressive for the most part. Her proportions are very close to how she appears onscreen, with her limbs being fairly skinny. The downside to this, though, is that her "car backpack" is fairly large, though not a WHOLE lot moreso than the backpack she had in the cartoon show. (It's honestly rather impressive, given that Arcee's initial robot mode design for the show was a cameo and didn't really have an alt mode design in mind, to my understanding.) Still, the backpack isn't so large to interfere with her stability much, if at all. Her rear wing-spoilers from car mode can be removed from the top of the car-backpack to make her look more show-accurate and reduce back-kibble, which is a nice option. I honestly think they don't look so bad, so I tend to keep them on, as it's not like the wings have any other use or store anywhere else. Arcee has some really nice design touches that I like in this mode-- ones that arne't necessarily needed, but that make the figure all the better for them. One is that the "waist holsters" that are on so many Animated designs are actually seperate, movable pieces on her waist, which is pretty darned cool. Little pieces of her car mode also flip into her lower legs to make those parts of her look more solid-- it really wasn't needed at all, but it really adds to how her legs look. Her ankles are on ball joints, allowing her to keep herself more stable than she otherwise would have been. Also, her headsculpt is very well-done, with nice light-piping-- the only thing I don't like about it is that her lips aren't painted red, they're the same pink as the rest of her face, which looks weird. I also like how her car windshield forms a bit of a "skirt" in her robot mode-- an ingenious use of that piece of her vehicle mode, there. As far as her gimmick, swords can be pulled out from her car-backpack and placed in her hands. They look pretty cool, but be warned-- many people have seen stress marks on Arcee's slender thumbs after putting the swords in her palms. (It also takes a bit of a "push" to get them back in her back-holsters.) Arcee's articulation is quite good-- she can move at the neck, shoulders, elbows, waist (well, middle of the stomach, to be precise), hips (at three points), knees, and ankles. However, her arms and neck are on ball joints, so she actually has even more movement than this description would make it seem.
    Animated Arcee is quite a fine toy, and it's nice to see her finally get the sportscar alt mode she had in G1. Her transformation is simplistic while still accomplishing a lot, she's got pretty good proportions in both modes, and she isn't PINK pink. Her backpack is a bit too big in robot mode, and there's a few other niggling things, but overall I'd highly recommend her.

Review by Beastbot

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